When comparing Elephant vs Turtl, the Slant community recommends Elephant for most people. In the question“What is the best cross-platform note taking app?”Elephant is ranked 15th while Turtl is ranked 20th. The most important reason people chose Elephant is:

Only basic features are added to Elephant so users aren't overloaded with the interface.

Pros

Pro

Only the essentials

Only basic features are added to Elephant so users aren't overloaded with the interface.

Pro

Files are stored locally

Instead of moving files over the cloud, files are stored locally for extra privacy. For syncing, any cloud service can be used.

Pro

Open source

All features can be used or edited at will for free.

Pro

Markdown supported

This can be useful when formatting files in HTML.

Pro

Files can be uploaded by drag'n'drop

Pro

Highly compatible

Elephant is compatible with Mac OS, Windows, and Linux.

Pro

Active development

The developer has replied, and added many features which users have suggested in the comments on the website.

Pro

Good security

After assigning a password to your account in Turtl, a key is created to encrypt the entire account. No data is stored on their servers meaning they have no access to unencrypted content. This is a huge leg up when comparing to other Evernote alternatives.

Pro

Multiple Platforms (Windows, Linux. macOS, Android, Firefox, Chrome)

Turtl has applications for all the major operating systems, as well as Android. In addition, there are extensions available for Firefox and Chrome that cooperate with the downloadable applications.

Pro

Open source

The app is licensed under GPLv3 making it open source. This means that anyone can use the code and contribute. This also makes it easy to use on one's own server or for company solutions.

Cons

Con

No mobile app

No mobile apps (can use common sync tools to edit plain files, though).

Con

Light on features

While not labeled a beta, Elephant is a new note program and doesn't offer all the bells and whistles.

Con

No WYSIWYG editor

Con

No iOS app

While many other operating systems have a client, iOS does not have one yet (though it is planned).